


Mrs Danbush's Tree 3

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 09:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17998877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Blair falls out of Mrs Danbush's tree





	Mrs Danbush's Tree 3

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt attempt
> 
> The third of the stories with the same title...

challenge 619 attempt   

Mrs Danbush's Tree 3

by Bluewolf

It was, Blair decided years later, after he had started studying anthropology, a rite of passage. The equivalent of the often painful and usually dangerous 'rite of manhood' boys of hunter-gatherer tribes had to undertake when they hit puberty, if they were to be considered a man of the tribe.

Although there was no 'age of puberty' taken into consideration by the boys of Fort Worth. As soon as the local boys (that was, the ones living in the fairly lengthy cul-de-sac where his uncle lived) were allowed to play outside, go outside their gardens unsupervised, the older ones expected them to submit to 'their' version of being one of them. Some were quite young - at least one was at least three years younger than Blair, sent out in the 'care' of an older brother whose first duty, as far as Blair could see, had been to take the younger boy to the overgrown garden where one big tree grew... and tell him to climb it.

The older boys weren't totally unreasonable about it. They did understand that for some of the younger, aka smaller, boys the tree would be quite difficult to climb, and if someone failed on his first attempt - or even his tenth - it didn't mean he was automatically barred from ever being accepted. He just wasn't allowed to join in the games the older boys played in the sparsely-vehicled street until he had climbed the tree.

Even at seven Blair realized that the girls probably had their own ritual, based on something in the part of the street where they played, but boys and girls never mixed. Not until they were old enough to stop spending their time playing with their friends. The boys played nearer the main street; the girls played close to the upper end of the cul-de-sac.

Uncle David had sent Blair out with his cousin Robert; and Robert had taken him to the tree, quietly explaining that until he could climb it he would just have to sit and watch the other boys playing.

Blair looked at the tree. The bottom six or seven feet had no branches - not even the mini stubs where branches had been removed. After that, however, the branches were plentiful, although some looked too thin to bear anyone's weight.

Yes, it was that bottom bit that provided most difficulty...

Blair grinned mentally. His time spent on one of the Pacific islands would be of considerable benefit to him; he knew how the natives of that island climbed the long branchless trunks of the coconut palms; he had even been taught how it was done. He reached forward and began to climb, half aware that he was being watched, open-mouthed, by the other boys. He reached the lowest branches and transferred his weight to one, then climbed on.

The one thing he hadn't been told was how high he should go, but finally he decided that the branches were getting just too thin to hold his weight. He started to climb down... and a branch broke under one foot. He struggled to remain in the tree, but he was unable to get a firm grasp on another branch, and he fell. The branches broke his fall a little as he dropped through them, but there was nothing to support him for the final six feet and he hit the ground with a thump that left him breathless.

Robert reached him first. "Blair! Are you all right?"

Blair tried to push himself into a sitting position, and gasped at the pain that stabbed his arm. "My arm... " he gasped.

The two oldest boys glanced at each other. "We'll help you take him home," one of them told Robert. It was clear that both were somewhat shaken and Blair had the feeling that he was the first boy to have been hurt.

"Story is... I was running, tripped and fell," he said. "No need to tell Uncle David I fell out of a tree."

"You went higher than anyone else ever has," Roy Brookes said quietly. "You proved yourself... and if you're willing to keep quiet about the tree... "

"The grown-ups don't need to know the truth," Blair said as they carefully helped him up. "Just warn anyone else who climbs it not to go too high."

Uncle David took Blair to the hospital, where they confirmed what he already suspected; Blair had broken his arm.

He went out and watched the other boys playing until the cast was removed, and then found himself welcomed into the group. Even though he'd fallen, he had successfully climbed Mrs Danbush's tree.

Blair stayed in Fort Worth for another year, before his mother collected him and took him off on another trip around some of the more exotic parts of the world.

He would, he knew, miss the acceptance he had been given by the other boys - he had no idea if Naomi would ask Uncle David to give him a temporary home again. The one thing he did know was that he would soon have to spend some serious time in school to gain the qualifications he would need to go to university.

But that, for the moment, didn't concern him. He was traveling again with his foot-loose mother, and although he missed his uncle, aunt and cousins, and the local boys who had become his friends, he was looking forward to seeing some more of the world.


End file.
